Hikari emerged into an open space.
The cold wind of the wyvern peaks gushed through her hair.
Her silver hair fluttered in the moonlight.
It was an arena.
A ring of massive columns surrounded the arena. Intricate carvings of wyverns and men.
Flakes of snow rushing through the space between them.
A cloud lumbering past the tower just a leap away from where she was standing.
She looked around the arena. Intricate carving on the ground. She could feel the gaps between the stone beneath her soles.
The arena was empty. There were no skeletons.
"I'm the only one who ever made it to the top it seems."
There was only a conspicuous structure right in the middle of the arena.
"That's the treasure chest I hope."
It laid still. Silent. As it had been for perhaps generations.
Hikari walked towards it.
As she approached, she felt a spark of mana in the ground.
A click sound. The torches on the columns flared up one by one.
A pause.
Another click sound. The torches around a huge altar right in the middle of the platform flared up.
Hikari drew her sword and assumed her stance. She could feel the mana rising in the altar.
"That does not sound like congratulations for clearing the trial."
All at once, pillars of flames erupted all around the altar.
A crystal materialized, glowing red stone, runes searing white with heat, hovering above the ground, sucking in the flames around it.
A being with two massive arms took form, its flesh made of swirling flames.
Once it took shape, it released an expanding bubble of heat. Hikari's mana barrier flared as the flame wave swept across the whole arena.
"An elemental. Only seen these in the textbooks."
Pulse after pulse, the flames swept past her, Hikari stood her ground.
As the last pulse subsided, Hikari hurled a volley of musket balls at it. The steel balls went straight through, melting into liquid metal spilling into the ground behind it.
They did little but elicit an annoyed growl.
The elemental gathered flames in its hand. Hikari dodged to the side as it fired a continuous torrent of flames towards her.
The flames followed her as she turned. The surface of her salamander suit was burnt as the flames permeated through her mana barrier.
She took a sudden sharp dive towards the elemental. The elemental was slow to turn its flames.
She channeled her mana into her feet.
With a back flip, she swung both legs right through the infernal.
Her feet hit something hard, knocking it upwards.
The crystal hit the ceiling, releasing a blazing wave of flames.
Hikari darted to the rim of the platform.
The crystal ringing in a silent screech.
She blocked one wave of flame with her barrier.
The crystal charges up for another.
Hikari used the pause to dart for the rim of the arena.
Once there, She grabs the stone at the back of the column facing the outside.
The stone crumbled, allowing her to shape it into a platform.
"I can bend this."
The crystal sends pulses after pulses outwards.
Hikari hid behind the pillar, hanging onto supports she created.
She had a brief moment of respite for her to check herself.
The salamander skin on her lower leg was burnt as she dragged it right through the heart of the infernal.
Her foot felt the sting of the burns as the freezing wind brushed against them.
"I don't want to burn this expensive armour."
She willed the salamander armour to concentrate themselves onto her joints and her chest.
Like a viscous liquid, the salamander fungus crawled along her skin, congealing around her joints.
They now add an extra layer of cushioning against the pressure she creates during sudden maneuvers, improving Hikari's mobility.
She took out the wyvern skin pieces and concentrated them around the salamander skin to insulate them.
She had avoided wearing them earlier as they prevented her from venting heat.
Then she stabbed her sword and daggers into the wall of the pillar. Hanging her backpack with one dagger.
"These are just dead weight against the elemental. Would rather keep them for later."
The pulses of flame had stopped.
With a swing, Hikari landed back into the arena.
The fire elemental had reformed its body. Its flames are burning brighter than before.
"I don't think I can kick it anymore."
An array of fire balls appeared. One by one, they barreled towards Hikari.
Hikari kited and deflected them.
She felt lighter with the salamander skin around her joints. It was like having extra muscle for less weight.
But she was unable to reflect the huge fireballs as she did with the wyvern head statues.
As the last fireball exploded, the elemental started gathering energy.
The air in the arena stirred. The mana presence similar to the heating rooms of the floors below filled the arena.
Hikari backed off to the rim of the arena and braced.
"I think I remember how to beat an elemental"
The warm winds gushed past her, her frost barrier glowed as it locked against an opposing element.
As the winds range, Hikari gathers the flames in her hands.
She gathers two balls of fire, one in each hand.
As the winds subside, the elemental gathers its mana.
Seeing the elemental's energy build up, Hikari hurls the massive fireballs lumbering towards the elemental.
A scotching ray of flame hits her chest, incinerating her armour, dissipating against the dense layer of frost barrier underneath.
As her lumbering fireballs approached the elemental, it redirects its attention to defending itself.
Hikari dashed towards the elemental, the ashes of her chest armour scattering to the winds as she moved.
She was now locked in a pushing contest against the elemental.
The elemental hissed and fizzled. Sparks of flame fly in all directions as the stalemate continued.
"I guess I can't spare the daggers."
Her throwing daggers merged from the back of the pillar and gathered around her. She ignited them, brilliant purple RazenHeir flames.
The daggers fly right through the elemental. The elemental hissed and flared.
In that moment, Hikari forced the fireballs to merge with the elemental.
As the elemental absorbed its own flames, it glowed brighter than the sun.
Hikari darted back and put up her guard, lowered her body, redirecting all of her mana into a frontal frost barrier.
The elemental released a last searing wave of flame.
As the flames subside, its core dropped onto the ground. Its glow fades.
"Weak to your own power."
One by one, the flames on the torches were extinguished.
Only the sound of the howling wind remained.
—----- Hikari —------
[Mana : 890 -> 951]
[Defense : 790 -> 856]
[Mind : 795 -> 838]
[wyvern heart potency: 0 -> 100]